Cut and Buff PPG DCC well cured paint.

Discuss anything after that final masking comes off.

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PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:05 am
Another Cut and Buff thread.

Just starting on this, as this winters project.

Background:

Painted my 914 Porsche back in 2017 with a single stage PPG DCC concept. First car I have painted. It turned out pretty good and in my quest to just drive the thing I put off doing a Cut and Buff back then. I did do the area around the windshield and cowl and between the tail lights back then though.

I had put on about six coats knowing my painting skills may be lacking, and that I would do a proper buff in the future. It turned out pretty good with just a normal amount of orange peel, about what you would see on a factory paint job. It looked good enough that I won a couple trophy's at Porsche meets and had it featured in the Nov. 2020 issue of Porsche Panorama magazine.

But it could look better.

I started out hand sanding with 1500 but that wasn't cutting it, so I dropped down to 1200. this paint is really hard after 3 1/2 years of curing. Sanding it with 6 in blocks alternating between hard Durablocks and Softsanders. already have a good selection of sandpaper 1200,1500,2000, 2500 and I have a older Porter Cable 7424 buffer I'll be using when I get to that point, also already have some 3M compounds, (some kind of 3 part system). some wool pads, Meguirs microfiber cutting pads and various foam pads.

Questions

I have the edges taped off while sanding the rear trunk and front trunk lid (engine in the middle) What is the best way to sand and buff the 1/4 in area under the tape? and when?
Do I use the compound and then remove the tape and go back and sand the edges then rebuff them? or remove the tape and sand the edges then re-tape before buffing and just hand buff the edges? not sure of the best way on this. I really don't want to burn through an edge. I have a DA but would rather not use it. I did of course use it and an airboard when doing the bodywork.

I do have a couple ounces of paint left for touchups if necessary.

This paint seems so hard that burning through may be hard though, but I don't know.

Any advice will be appreciated.

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PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:12 pm
PPG paints REALLY get hard with age...if the paint color was still okay and it looked pretty much like a factory peel level of paint I think I might have opted to just sand down the color pretty hard then do a few clear coats over it, then cut and buff. That would be a lot of mils of paint thickness, though......hmmmmm.....you will get some other comments on this.....
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 31, 2021 8:38 am
I let my overalls cure for weeks before sanding and buffing. Yes, it does take more time and effort, but it stays. the edges, I usually wait until after I do the heavy compounding (with a wool pad). then I take the tape off, carefully sand the edges with 1500 or 2000, and do the compounding with a foam pad. Easier to control and less likely to ruin an edge. If it's in a spot that may present problems, I do it with my 3" buffer. Again, with a foam pad made for compounding. Hand buffing would take forever!
Last edited by chopolds on Mon Feb 01, 2021 8:32 am, edited 1 time in total.



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PostPosted: Sun Jan 31, 2021 12:06 pm
I’m surprised this has not been mentioned yet but a tip taken from the guys on here, these two included have helped me stay out of trouble. And here it is, Be conscious of the direction of the pad rotation near the edges keeping it rotation off the edges rather than in where the pad will deform and catch the lip. I will potentially be in the same boat soon as I have a bc/cc job on the car I bracket race that never was sanded and polished. It’s a middle of the road clear and won’t know how hard it is until we try.

I also purchased a DA polisher and intended on using that exclusively, until I found myself beating the heck out of it running it so fast, taking longer than it should and using a lot of expensive compound. I eventually bought a cheap rotary and had much better results, but still used the DA around the edges.

Good luck
JT

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:49 am
Slowly moving along

Have the front and rear trunk lids sanded now.

Hardest part was getting out the peel with the 1200. Then still sanding by hand I moved to 1500 and 2000, After that I removed the tape from the edges and just did them with the same series of papers using hard rubber blocks to keep from going over the edge of the panel. I will re-tape the edges when I start to do the buffing. Have a set of the 3" pads for the small areas.

Think I will work on the doors next, I'll have to take some trim off and probably the bumpers also.

My thoughts are to finish the sanding first then start buffing everything, But if I get too tired of sanding I may try buffing in between.. IDK.

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